WSDOT Eastern Region Update
July 2008
From the Regional Administrator
Welcome to the July edition of our Eastern Region monthly newsletter. We start with details on the assistance provided by WSDOT crews during the recent wind and fire events during the month. There are a couple of items on the North Spokane Corridor and a note about our partnership with Pend Oreille County on the Usk Bridge.
We are currently in the process of developing our 2009-2011 biennial budget for submittal to the Governor later this summer. With the rising costs of fuel and construction materials, coupled with the decreases in transportation revenues, it will certainly be a tough balancing act for the Governor and the Legislature. I’ll keep you posted on our Regional budget picture as the process moves along.
Keith Metcalf, P.E.
Regional Administrator
WSDOT crews respond during July 10th windstorm and fires
WSDOT Maintenance crews were called out to deal with downed trees, power lines and fires resulting from the July 10, 2008 windstorm. Stevens, Ferry and Spokane County were severely affected by the storm as it passed over the region. The damage from the storms prompted Washington Governor Christine Gregoire to declare a state of emergency for all the counties of Washington.
In Spokane County, the Washington State Patrol requested help from the WSDOT Incident Response Team to support the Valley View fire efforts. Their help was needed to provide traffic control and barricades at the start of the fire. As the homes near the fire were being evacuated, this support freed up Troopers for other critical work needed to protect the public.
In Ferry County, the storm initially blew down dozens of trees and several power lines onto State Highways. WSDOT crews began immediately removing trees and assisting with traffic control where power lines were downed. Fires on both US 395 at the Barstow Fire north of Kettle Falls and on SR 21 near the Twenty One Mile campground required highways to be closed. Road blocks were setup and staffed around the clock by WSDOT crews until the highway could be safely reopened.
Road closures during a fire along highways are extremely important to protect the public and to ensure traffic does not interfere with emergency work. The closures are very serious business as the public is often cut off from their family, livestock or property.
During the summer and fall months WSDOT crews are often called to provide traffic control for wildfires and are prepared to provide support as needed.
First concrete paving underway on the North Spokane Corridor
Contractor crews from Acme Materials have begun placing the first sections of Portland Cement Concrete pavement driving surface on a portion of the North Spokane Corridor freeway. The surfacing is part of the NSC/Freya to Farwell PCCP paving project. It is expected that traffic will begin flowing on this section in late 2009 when the BNSF Tunnel (located in the middle of this section and being built under a separate contract) is completed.
Some project trivia:
In the 3.5 mile section there is about 55,000 cubic yards of concrete being used for the mainline freeway lanes. It will take 5,850 truck loads to deliver the concrete. If placed end to end, the line of trucks would stretch 33 miles. That same concrete covers 142,000 square yards, enough to cover 22 football fields.
The concrete pavement is being placed in a 36 foot-wide, three-lane wide swath in a single pass. The concrete paver automatically installs steel dowel bars and steel tie bars at each joint. Approximately 39,000 dowel bars will be installed in the concrete. These dowel bars tie the concrete panels together at the joints, which are cut in after the paving machine passes.
A Property Management Challenge
The Transportation Partnership Account (TPA) funding allocated to the North Spokane Corridor (NSC) is primarily focused on right-of-way acquisition. We have focused the expenditure of those funds on acquiring residential properties where the NSC will connect to I-90. To date we have acquired approximately 85 residential properties in this area and will continue this process for several years to come.
This success has created a challenge related to managing these properties once we own them. As these are, for the most part, non-occupied houses they are attractive to folks that are without housing. Our Property Management personnel have been working closely with the Spokane City Police to keep trespassers off the properties plus keep dumping and other illegal activities to a minimum. Another challenge is the upkeep of the appearance of these properties including keeping the yards mowed, cleaning up illegal dumping, and addressing the occasional fence that is in disrepair.
Ultimately the buildings from these properties need to be removed. Many of them will be demolished and a few will be sold, either by WSDOT or the demolition contractors, to be moved to other locations. We cleared 6 properties last winter (2 of those were moved to new locations), have recently awarded a demolition contract that will address 13 properties, and are working towards advertising another contract that will address approximately 33 more properties.
To date we have a good relationship with the City of Spokane Police and have been able to be very responsive to their calls and the calls from neighboring property owners. We are very appreciative of the patience exhibited by our neighbors and through our responsiveness we are striving to maintain our presence as a responsible property owner in this area and throughout the NSC corridor.
WSDOT partners with Pend Oreille County on Usk Bridge
In the community of Usk, north of Newport, the existing bridge that crosses the Pend Oreille river and provides access to the Kalispel Reservation is in need of some serious repair. The existing structure was constructed in 1964 with timber glue-lam beams on concrete capped timber pile bents on the west 600 feet and prestressed girders and concrete pile bents on the eastern 1,680 feet. The deck is lightweight concrete, 6 inches in depth, and is 26 feet wide with a 28 foot approach width. The east bridge approach is on the Kalispel Indian Reservation. The roadway is functionally classified as a rural major collector with an existing average daily traffic count of 2,020 vehicles.
In June, 2008, the Pend Oreille County Commissioners requested that the WSDOT Eastern Region partner with the County to complete the environmental, design, and construction administration phases of the Usk Bridge – Major Maintenance Project. On June 6, 2008, we accepted their request, bringing an approximate $3 to $5 million dollar federal aid bridge project to our Region.
The project proposes to extend the useful life of the existing concrete and wooden structure by 10 to 15 years by replacing or reinforcing structurally deficient concrete and wooden bridge members; piles, stringers, pier caps, barrier, deck, etc. The full project scope will be defined via a thorough bridge inspection anticipated to be done this summer.
Although there are some structurally deficient bridge elements, the bridge itself is not structurally deficient; it is functionally obsolete due to the narrow deck width for logging and chip trucks that frequently cross the bridge. According to the Pend Oreille County Engineer, the bridge is currently signed to allow only one semi tractor & trailer to cross at a time.
WSDOT staff members are in the preliminary stages of assigning a project team to begin design work.
The Region and Pend Oreille County are planning to advertise for construction bids during the spring of 2009 with construction commencing during the summer.